A Sad Fairy Tale
by Kit-Cat Star
Summary: They're reminded time and time again that not everyone gets their happy ending. One-shot, inspired by the most recent chapters.


**Before you read: This contains spoilers from the last few chapters! Do not read if you haven't read it yet!**

**Summary: **They're reminded time and time again that not everyone gets their happy ending. One-shot, inspired by the most recent chapters.

* * *

All that was left was a grave.

It was a very nice grave, sure, in front of a waterfall, the grave a stone with a circle and a bell in the loop. The grave was in a pretty location, a pretty site, and would probably stand there as long as there was someone left to remember her. Which would be forever, because two of those that were closest to her are Celestial Spirits.

Leo and Aries knew Karen very well - they knew the cruel side of her, the one that abused her spirits and treated them like tools. The woman who played with men as if they were toys. In fact, Karen treated everyone, even her Guild Master, as if he was below her. She was a proud, independent woman, and it was because of this that she died.

It wasn't a pretty, calm, peaceful death either. It was a horrible, painful death, as Angel was never the merciful type.

Leo was banished from the Spirit World, Aries' key was taken by Angel.

Leo, as Loke, joined Fairy Tail, and met Lucy Heartfilia a couple of years later.

It was that grave, right there, that Loke was kneeling in front of. He was reading the inscription - a quote that was meant to describe Karen, but it was meaningless. Her reputation told everyone that the quote, meant to show Karen as 'perfect', ruined it. Everyone knew that Karen had been sour to the core.

As Loke read the gravestone, he was reminded that not everyone was given their happy ending that they deserved. Things happened, life happened, fate happened. At one point, Loke had thought that he would be one of those unlucky fellows. It was thanks to Lucy that he was still alive, and not dead, as he had almost stayed in the human world for too long.

Not everyone was as lucky as Loke. Not everyone got a happy ending to their sad fairy tale.

Loke reflected on this as he stood up from his crouching position and adjusted his glasses. They flashed as he turned his back, orange hair waving in the slight wind, and walked into his new life, ready to put the past in the past, but not quite ready to look towards the future.

The man, shimmering, disappeared with a few sparks of golden light, back into the Spirit World.

* * *

His death was justified. His death was an act of bravery, and he had died protecting her.

But Erza believed that you lived for your friends - not dying, as Simon had done.

She had built a small grave for Simon, in Rosemary Village. After the events of the Tower of Heaven, she had taken a day or two to travel to the small village, which was now empty. Only broken, damaged homes remained.

And now a grave, that told of a man who had died too soon. He had died for Erza. He had died right after proclaiming his love. It was heartbreaking to Erza, that she had known a man for her entire life, and, even though she had been absent for a part of it, had never realized that he had loved her.

She still thought about it. Instead of thinking about her friends back at the Tower of Heaven, wondering if they were okay, thinking about the possession of Jellal, and the nightmares of being taken back - no, they were gone. Instead, she thought about her friends in their new guilds, wondering if they were okay, thinking about Jellal's life on the run.

And the nightmares of Simon's death.

At Erza's guild, Fairy Tail, everyone was given their happy ending. No matter what, they still fought. They still fought, and they fought hard, and they won.

That was just how Fairy Tail worked.

It wasn't as if they were like Sabertooth, where it was win or leave the guild - because Fairy Tail wasn't like that, at all. Guild members lost battles, but through each loss they learned something. So no matter what, it was a win. And no Fairy Tail member lost their life on a mission - that would be like throwing your life away, dying on a simple escort job or an easy quest to get rid of some bandits. There were only a few jobs that were ever _truly _hard for Fairy Tail members, and they were called S-Class.

Erza had lived by the rule, that with each loss there was a silver lining. She also lived through the "live, not die, for your friends". Both had been shattered with Simon's death.

There was no silver lining - he was _dead. _And he couldn't live for his friends - he had _died _for them.

Simon wouldn't get his happy ending. He, unlike the guild members of Fairy Tail, would never experience the freedom and life that she did. He would never see his sister again, even though for years while enslaved, he had probably thought about her all the time. Wondering how she was doing, if she was still alive, how she was faring. And he would never get his feelings returned, because although Erza tried her best, she could never love Simon for more than a brother.

It haunts her, all of the time, that not everyone would experience the lucky life that she had lived for except for herself. They - Simon - had drawn the short end of the stick, and they - no, he - would pay.

And yet, what did she know? She could be the same. In the end, she might die alone and scared, without anyone to cry for her. She could die without knowing if someone still cared for her. Erza would wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, scared for several minutes before realizing that she was back in her home, at Fairy Hills.

Then she would realize that no matter what, someone would care for her. Because she was a part of Fairy Tail, and dead or alive, they would always love and accept her.

They would cry for her.

She always hoped that Simon died without a regret. Somehow, in the back of her mind, she always disagreed.

* * *

They were talking, they were hanging out, listening to an important meeting, and then a bomb had been dropped on them.

Literally.

One of their lives had been changed forever - for the worse. The second had died.

There was a day that didn't go by without Doranbolt regretting asking Lahar if he wanted to eavesdrop on the Council Members with him. Lahar's agreement had been a deadly decision, one Lahar paid for with his life.

Now, standing where the ruins of the second Magic Council had been, Doranbolt felt tears coming to his eyes. He shook them away - men didn't cry, he told himself - but hadn't he, in the end, caused Lahar's death?

Doranbolt should have done _something - _he could have teleported Lahar and as many Council Members away as possible, before the bomb had struck. He could have saved someone from being blown up. He could have alerted everyone, _hey, a crazy demon is about to come and destroy you all._

Doranbolt let out a humorless laugh. One of the surviving messengers glanced at him in as much confusion as a giant, talking frog could portray. Doranbolt just shook his head.

"It's... nothing," he said. The frog turned back to paying his respects to a small grave marker.

Doranbolt fell down to his knees to look at the closest one to him. While everyone else was working to rebuild, reform a third Magic Council, he was crumbling. He was falling, because his coworker, his fellow employee, his best friend - _whatever - _had died. And maybe it was out of pity for himself, but Doranbolt could not help but feel that it was his fault.

The rational side of him told him, no, it wasn't, and he could not have saved anyone, because he hadn't known.

And maybe it was out of pity for Lahar, but Doranbolt could not help but feel that the dead people here had so much to live for.

But they were dead, gone, and they weren't coming back. The thought of this struck Doranbolt deeply. Never again would he ever talk to Lahar, hang out with Lahar, or listen to an important Council meeting with Lahar when they weren't supposed to, laughing like fools because they were still young, weren't they? He was gone, forever.

Maybe Lahar had a good life - as good as a hardworking employee of the Magic Council member could, Doranbolt had never thought that the job was all that amazing - but he couldn't live that good life anymore, because he was dead. There was so much Lahar had wanted to do as well - he had wanted to get a promotion, become a better man. He had wanted to catch Jellal again, and place justice on all of the escaped criminals. Start a family, even, if that was ever to be possible.

It was foolish of Doranbolt to be reminded of the fairy tales he had been told to as a kid, but he couldn't help but feel that there was some sort of strange drama that had caused Lahar's death. Doranbolt and Lahar both lived by the philosophy that "everything happens for a reason". Similar to the fairy tales - they didn't die for no reason, did they? No. But what purpose, what reason, did Lahar's death stand for?

In books, in fairy tales, the characters that died were the evil witch, the bad stepmother. They died because they were evil and their death signified happiness for the protagonist. The parents or at least one, also died lots of times, but that was always for a reason. At least, that was how it went in the children's tales.

The end of Lahar's fairy tale ended quite miserably by Doranbolt's standards.

Probably because it had been years since he had last read a fairy tale, but Doranbolt couldn't remember any fairy tales where the main character died at the end. There must have at least one, written by a twisted storyteller, but Doranbolt realized that the kid's versions were brighter and happier. The kid's versions were the only ones that he had ever read, when he was younger, and those were the ones he wanted right now. He wanted them to happen in real life, because he couldn't get past all of these deaths and he wanted it to all be a dream. He wanted a bright and happy fairy tale.

The end of Lahar's fairy tale wasn't. He had not been able to achieve his dreams, and he had died without saying goodbye. If that was not a sad ending, then Doranbolt did not know what was.

* * *

She could not go near the beach without remembering. She also could not approach a pool without it flashing through her mind. And every time she passed by a river, a fountain, a pond, a lake, or any sort of body of water - heck, any water at all - she knew it would come to her, whether she wanted the memories to or not.

They would engulf her, for just a few seconds, and her eyes would dim and her lips would tremble. Her friends would ask her what was wrong, but she would not reply for a few seconds.

Then, she would straighten herself. Wipe the tears away. Why was she crying again?

After all, the one she was crying for - wasn't dead. She was just gone, and even if _that person _had said there was no way to bring her back... _she _was a member of Fairy Tail. She was determined to find her again.

"What happens when you break a key?" Lucy asked herself as she flipped through a book. It was not the first one about Celestial Spirit Magic. It was one of many that Lucy had found and had studied.

It talked about some basics: how Celestial Magic worked, how to create a contract, the existence of the Zodiac keys as well as silver keys. It explained that there were twelve Zodiac keys, stronger than the more popular silver keys. It listed the names of the Zodiac keys - which, if someone knew their horoscope, could figure out easily. It also named most of the silver keys. There were a couple of more detailed entries about Zodiac keys, and even a picture or two of certain spirits. Taurus' image was spot on - he, apparently, was a popular spirit that most people knew about. Cancer's picture was pretty close, too, as well as Libra's and Virgo's.

But there was a lot more that _wasn't _sated. Leo, or Loke, had a very small entry, and no picture. Aries and Sagittarius were the same - Sagittarius, after all, had been in the possession of the demons of Galuna Island. Gemini's powers were not easy to understand, so their abilities had been marked as 'unknown'. The origin of Celestial Magic, or any keys - Zodiac or Silver - was unexplained. How they were created, for example. The 13th key was mentioned, once as a rumor. The Celestial King was completely disregarded as 'fake'. 'Unreal'. 'Make believe'.

Lucy gritted her teeth when she saw that. She had met the Celestial King three times. The first, she had summoned all of her spirits and had almost killed herself in an attempt to clear Loke's name. Once, only once, had been good - a party, that had lasted three months on Earthland and one night in the Spirit World. But the last...

There was a very small entry on Aquarius.

Lucy had not read it. She hadn't read any of the entries on Aquarius, in fact. Every time she as much looked at something that spoke of the Water-Bearer, she had skipped past it. It hadn't been long since she had lost the key. No, that wasn't right.

It hadn't been long since she had _broken _the key.

How was it possible?

_"The only way to summon the Spirit King," _Aquarius had said. _"He does not have a real key."_

And yet Lucy had summoned him, against her own wishes, because it had been for her friends. It had been for the greater good.

After all, if she had not broken Aquarius' key, then a lot more people would have died.

"What's happened to Aquarius?" she questioned herself, out loud, pushing the book away. She leaned back in her chair, thinking, a frown on her face. "Did her key manifest somewhere else, for a different Celestial mage? How can I bring her back?"

It was weird, how even though the mermaid had always been so rude to Lucy, the blonde wanted to bring Aquarius back. She wanted to be Aquarius' key holder, owner, _friend, _again. Not only for herself, not only for protection or power, but also for the distraught Scorpio, who had lost his girlfriend as well.

Aquarius' sacrifice had not been in vain, but Lucy still thought it was. Lucy had lost a valuable ally and friend that day, and she wanted to right the wrong.

_She isn't dead, _Lucy always thought, _but she might as well be._

Layla, Jude, Michelle... they were all gone. And Lucy did not want to let go of her oldest friend, one that had known and respected her mother. She wasn't ready to abandon what they'd had.

Lucy thought about that sort of thing a lot. She thought she'd be able to forgive her father, for example, and he had left her right when she could have. Was Michelle still alive? She was a doll, after all, and could only reside in Lucy's memories and thoughts. Both times, Lucy had been about to take them both into her life, but they had left before she had gotten the chance to do so.

Would she ever be able to obtain Aquarius again?

Lucy shook her head; she couldn't think like that. That would be giving up the fight before it even started, and Lucy would never do that. She knew Aquarius wouldn't, either, because for all of her talks about her dates with Scorpio, Aquarius had really tried to get the job done. If Aquarius really wanted to get back to Lucy, and if Lucy really wanted Aquarius' key again, they wouldn't let some stupid rule such as "We can't see each other ever again" get to them.

They would fight, and if they lost - no. They would not lose. Just like how Lucy hadn't lost her father - she had gained him, as she knew he watched over her every day. And Lucy hadn't lost the chance to talk to her little sister - Michelle sat, watching her, ready for a conversation every day in Lucy's apartment. Lucy, she had not lost her mother. Layla existed in photos, memories, and Lucy's keys. None of them were gone, but simply in a different form. Lucy did her best, and she had always gained something in the end.

And Lucy would try her hardest to not make the same mistake. She would not make the same mistake of not being strong enough to defeat those demons attacking her, and being forced to break Aquarius' key. She would train, get better, stronger. She would overcome any obstacles in her way. She would gain Aquarius' key back before Happy could say "fish".

But even though she did her best, every single time, she's reminded time and time again that not everyone gets their happy ending.

* * *

**Watch Lucy get Aquarius' key again somehow, next chapter or by the end of the arc, and my one-shot be completely bogus.**

**So, was it good? Did I move you to tears, or make you laugh out loud? No matter your reaction, I would love for you to leave me a review and tell me what you think!**

**I hope this made sense. I wrote it at one in the morning and was too lazy to proofread it again, enjoy.**


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